Hello creators! This is the first edition of the The Insider, a monthly update that gives you a quick overview of product updates and insights from the past month. We’re excited to share what we’ve been up to and what we’ve learned.
You may have seen the blog posts from September and October about the work we’re doing to help you get and keep more patrons. Many of the updates below are related to that work, and you’ll also see some updates that creators have been asking for.
Product Updates
Thank you page improvement
- When new patrons pledge, they land on a Thank You page. We updated that page to include a list of the benefits they have access to based on the tier they chose, and a button that takes them back to your creator page to see the posts they’ve unlocked.
- This produced a measurable improvement in patron retention! On average, 5% fewer patrons canceled within their first week.
- Based on this success, we’ll eventually give creators the option to customize the message on this page for each of your tiers.
Updates to creator page for non-patrons
- We’ve been testing new designs for the creator page that is shown to non patrons to find a way to better showcase what you are offering and make it easier to compare your tiers. After gathering enough data via A/B testing to be sure of the effect, we found a design that on average is 9% better at getting new patrons to sign up. We’ve got an active thread on this topic here in the forum, and are listening to your feedback while we continue to improve on the design. This does not affect the creator page that your patrons see. Only non-patrons landing in your page will see the new design. See the updated design here.
Patron pledge history
- We’ve updated the Patron Relationship Manager in your dashboard to allow you to view any patron’s entire billing history. Why does this matter? Creators have been asking for this to help track who is owed a benefit, to check when a patron has upgraded or downgraded, and more. To try it:
- Go to the Patron Relationship Manager
- Click on any patron’s name
- Click on ‘See all payment history’ at the bottom right of the page
New setting: choose whether or not to allow patrons to download the audio files you post
- We’ve added a new setting to let creators choose whether or not your patrons can download the audio files you share in a post. You can set this preference at patreon.com/edit/posts
Google SSO
- We updated the patron and creator signup process to allow everyone to use their Google account to sign up in 1 click, making signup faster and easier.
- This was also a measurable win! Patron registration is up 15% overall.
Push notifications to patrons
- We now send a push notification to patrons when a creator messages or comments to them
Updates to the emails we send to patrons when you post
- The email now better showcases what you posted by showing a preview of the content, so it’s really easy to see whether it’s a video, an image gallery, a poll, and so on.
- We also tested new subject lines that netted a 4.5% increase in patrons landing on your post page within 30 minutes of receiving the email. So more patrons are seeing your posts!
We moved the button for making a post to a more convenient spot.
- We found that a LOT of creators were clicking on the pencil button in the upper left of the page thinking it was the post button. So we made that a post button to streamline workflows.
Improvement to the Wordpress integration setup
- Did you know we have an integration with Wordpress so creators can gate content on their Wordpress website for patrons? We do! And now it’s much easier to set up in just a few clicks. Learn more about the integration here.
Patron exit survey updated with more responses
- When patrons cancel, we ask them to share why they are canceling. We added more reasons for cancelation that patrons can select to give you more insight on what’s happening with your patrons. You can see your survey responses at patreon.com/dashboard/exit-surveys
Insights
Retaining patrons
- Our data shows that if a patron is going to cancel, they are likely to do so in their first month, especially if they don’t see a new post or get any kind of welcome from the creator. So you might improve patron retention by making sure to post at least 2x/month, and making an extra effort to make new patrons feel welcome. Let’s share ideas on how to make new patrons feel the love!
That’s all for this month! We hope you found this useful as this is something we’ve been wanting to be able to share with you for a long time. As always, reply with any feedback or questions.